Colorado Business Was Helping Companies Switch To Remote Workspaces Long Before The Pandemic

DENVER (CBS4) - Working From Home is one of the major trends in 2020 that came from the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued into the new year. Colorado businesses helping to make the model secure and those businesses that changed their workflow say the concept is here to stay in 2021 and beyond. 

"Our thought when we started the company was to bring technology to bear that would redefine the way the world works," said Robert Green, the president and chief technology officer for Dizzion. "Because this was a global pandemic, the need was global, so we needed to be global as well." 

Green helped to start the company a decade ago when he said the idea of working form home was a service that was nice to have for companies who wanted to get an edge in hiring and retaining the top talent in their industries. He said compliance and security were major concerns that determined if a business could take on the setup before the pandemic. 

"What people are realizing and what many companies are realizing (is) 'Hey, this work-from-home thing is actually more efficient,'" Green said on a video conference call with CBS4 on Tuesday. "Their employees are happier, they have far better access to talent."

As the spread of COVID-19 started to force employers to keep their workers at home abroad, Dizzion saw an instant increase in the demand for the technology they designed so companies could access a secure network from home using their own devices. That need quickly came to the U.S. and the company started helping more businesses make the switch to remote workspaces. 

"We've actually had a lot of growth this year as a company, and we did that with the majority of the people working from home," said Duane Kibbee, the vice president of technology for American Financing. "What we've done is proven we can work from home." 

American Financing started working with Dizzion four years ago for a disaster plan that would help the company keep operating when people could not commute to the office. The thinking then was short term, imagining a snow storm as a scenario, but helped to set the framework for the pandemic. Before March 2020, 90 percent of their roughly 800 employees were at the office. The same percentage are now working from home. 

"We are in no hurry to get back into the office because we've succeeded, we've shown that we can do this from home," Kibbee said to CBS4 on Tuesday in a video conference call.

While the housing market froze immediately after the pandemic began and the state was under a shutdown things were ground to a halt, but then low interest rates quickly made 2020 a busy year for the mortage industry. As a Colorado-based company, their growth in 2020 required more room for new employees that they were running out of in their offices.

The ability to start workers at home helped them to hire more staff. Moving forward, they also know they can consider candidates outside of the state who would work remotely. American Financing added 30 percent more employees in the last year.

"I'm one of those who believes it will never go back to exactly the way it was before, this is proven that people can do it," Kibbee added.

Dizzion announced on Tuesday it saw revenue grow 130 percent in 2020 and it has received a growth investment from a private equity firm to help it expand. While it currently operates in 26 countries on six continents, it plans to double its total employees with the new funding.

"The workplace is going to change, it's going to evolve," Green said. "I'm excited to see what's going to happen, and how we will adapt to that changing workplace."